Mystery plane spotted circling Toowoomba skies

Megan Masters
Reporter
Megan joined APN in 2009 after getting a start as a Rural Press cadet reporter at the Wellington Times in central western New South Wales. She started at The Chronicle first as Saturday reporter, then as weekly staff reporter before taking the reins of the local community paper, Toowoomba Life.

TOOWOOMBA residents who keep an eye to the sky have been a little confused this week at the sight of a plane circling for hours every day since Sunday.

According to plane watching website Flightaware, the plane, a Nurtanio Aviocar twin propeller, turned up from Bankstown on Sunday after starting its journey that morning at HMAS Albatross, a navy base in Nowra on the New South Wales south coast.

It landed at Oakey Army Aviation Base at 3.43pm on Sunday.

It spent almost three hours in the air on Monday morning and took off for another flight lasting about three and a half hours that afternoon.

Flight data on Flightaware.com shows a Nurtanio Aviocar twin-prop plane from the Oakey Army Aviation Base has been circling Toowoomba for three to four hours each day since Sunday.Contributed

The pattern has continued ever since, with another three-hour flight this morning.

The plane's flight path shows it circling Toowoomba repeatedly before returning back to base.